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Winternights 2013 report

On November 10, 2013 Keeper of Seasons Hall met to celebrate its sixteenth Winternights. We met at the Pueblo Montaño trailhead on an afternoon whose warm weather made a pleasant contrast to the weather of the previous year. We met many others in the area enjoying the respite from the cold and the fall colors of the Bosque as we made our way to our destination on the bank of the Rio Grande, the same site we had used the previous two years. The familiar wildlife of the years before 2012 was back; we saw and heard a number of ducks, crows, cranes, and other birds as we walked.

Winternights for Keeper of Seasons Hall is both a disablot and an acknowledgement of the changing of the seasons. Accordingly, as we worked our way through the rounds of sumble, we hailed goddesses and gods of harvest and hard work, powers of victory and fertility, female ancestors and heroes, and our own accomplishments in past seasons as well as those to come. Oaths were made promising great work in the coming year, and given the might and determination of those present, there is little doubt that the promised deeds will be accomplished. Following everyone’s personal hails, I gave the Keeper of Seasons Hall hail for 2013, formally marking our sixteenth anniversary, and then the remainder of the mead, juice, and water was poured in libation. We then shared a picnic snack, enjoying a large amount of excellent food along with good company. As it began to grow dark, a few individuals made personal offerings to the river and to local wights, and we made our way back to the trailhead, chatting with each other about our personal lives and possible future events for the Hall.

The Keeper of Seasons Hall Hail for 2013:

With the holding of this blot, our hall has stood to see sixteen winters. Fierce winds and wild weather have battered our hall this last year, exposing drafts and leaks less apparent in milder times, but the hall still stands. Again those ravens who take flight in spring have sought our steads in these winter nights, and again the hall who takes its name from them seek one another in blessing and sacred work, raising high the horn and continuing to blot the holy powers, blithe and bold, with the will to live well.

In the seasons I ask your help; let us work together to repair and rebuild, mending cracks and patching holes, raising walls and laying thresholds. And while we work, just as Odin seeks Munin’s return, may we be ever mindful that memory is foundation. May we wax in words and deeds in this sixteenth winter!

Hail to you, my friends in this hall; in high esteem should all be held. From these words, may more worthy words follow and from these deeds, bold new deeds begin.